We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school…Bruce Springsteen – No Surrender

Pick to Click: War Tapes

What if David Gahan from Depeche Mode got together with Robert Smith from The Cure & somehow made a lovechild band? A reach I agree, but if they had, War Tapes would have surely been their spawn. War Tapes are Neil Popkin (singer/rhythm guitarist, from Boston), his sister Becca Popkin (bassist, also from Boston), Matt Bennett (lead guitar, from Hawaii) and William Mohler (drummer, from SoCal).

After I received an email from Intern Sara (who like the style of the band has her myspace image clouded in darkness) extolling the greatness of said band & my obvious love for Rock. As I’ve said before I will always listen & 9 times out of 10 I absolutely fucking hate what is sent to me (See Jonathan Levi Band – still can’t understand the fucking I-Phone piano), but in this case I couldn’t stop listening. The euphoric feelings that ran through me made me take notice that War Tapes were a force to be reckoned with. The intensity in Neil Popkin’s voice in connection with the shoegazing guitar sounds of Matt Bennett is nothing short of brilliance personified.

Nothing other than brilliance would be expected from such a vast array of talent. Becca Popkin or Mohler (she’s married to the drummer William Mohler, fuckin’ drummers always get laid, always) is a classically trained pianist and plays guitar but Becca had never played the bass before joining the band. Don’t think of her as some one-trick pony either as her jewelry line sells in L.A. and New York; she studied painting; and she took the photo of the Continental Divide that’s on their new album cover.

William Mohler or Popkin (He’s married to the bassist Becca Popkin, fuckin’ bassist’s always getting laid, always) played jazz bass and guitar before joining War Tapes, but he’d never played drums. Matt Bennett plays guitar & is from Hawaii & enjoys using Yelp on tour.

They’ve opened for Smashing Pumpkins, Tiger Army, Shiny Toy Guns & are now on tour with VNV Nation. This is a band on the cusp of causing a revival to Post-Punk/New Wave brilliance that the aforementioned bands have tried, but failed to accomplish. Their latest release is on Sarathan Records & is called The Continental Divide.

Sarathan Records was started in 2000 by a climatologist who tried to figure out a way to save the world from abrupt global warming. He must get to his young son in New York, which is being taken over by a new ice age…no wait that’s the premise to The Day After Tomorrow. A movie that I think I might’ve been the only person on Earth to like, but that’s okay cause the Earth is disintegrating anyway. I digress, Sarathan was actually founded by Jonathan Kochmer, Yale graduate, 9th person hired at Amazon, guitarist for Two Loons for Tea & climatologist who tried…no, sorry.

The newest single is called Dreaming of You & it’s amazing. See for yourself.